


No Distance At All

by mothergoose



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M, New Year's Kiss, WTNV Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 18:23:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3080708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mothergoose/pseuds/mothergoose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's New Year's Eve and not even interdimensional separation will prevent Carlos and Cecil from getting their midnight kiss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Distance At All

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sanityfacade](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Sanityfacade).



> Happy New Year’s Eve to everybody! This is my gift for SanityFacade for the WTNV Secret Santa exchange! They wanted something cute and fluffy, so I did my best! Hope you enjoy!

Cecil took a deep drink from his coffee, massaging his throat a bit. This year’s annual ‘Scream at the Snowflakes’ competition was intense and he was already out. Still, he could at least enjoy the complimentary coffee and cheap donuts they gave out, as he watched his niece scream at a particularly large flake. 

It was New Years Eve in Nightvale and everyone was out and about, hoping to meet with loved ones on the busy day. Despite Carlos being trapped-eh, doing work-in the Other Worldly Desert, he had made a point to encourage Cecil to eat at Josie’s house and relax with her and her-ahem-friends. For his part, Cecil had already made plans and assured Carlos that he would not be spending the night staring at the ceiling and eating his weight in cookies. “I’ll do that at Josie’s!” Cecil had exuberantly exclaimed and Carlos had just rolled his eyes at him. All of this lead to now, the City’s holiday festival. 

Cecil pulled his phone at his pocket to check the time and caught his sister’s eye for just a moment. His smile dimmed a bit and she quickly looked away, suddenly finding her own coffee very interesting. 

“Uncle Cecil!” 

Janice suddenly came rolling over to him, huffing and puffing due to all that screaming. “I lost!” she pouted tugging on her gloves. His smiled brightened again and he handed her the chocolate donut he had snagged from the snack table.

“Chocolate helps or so I’ve been told.” Janice turned it over in her hands and yawned. 

“Mom says I shouldn’t eat too much sugar before bed. It makes you groggy and lowers your ability to fight off bed-bugs.” Cecil shot his sister another look but she had pointedly turned around. Honestly, had she learned nothing in school? Everyone knew bed-bugs only came out during the blood moon. A tugging at his sweater brought his attention back to Janice. “Uncle Cecil has Uncle Carlos called you?” 

“Hm?” Cecil reached for his phone again but knew that I wouldn’t have any missed calls. Checking it over, he murmured, “No…” She glanced over her shoulder to see if her mother was looking and bit into the donut. 

“Oh.” She mumbled around a mouthful of icing and crumbs, sounding slightly confused. Cecil raised an eyebrow, mouth curling slightly. Janice swallowed and took another bite. “Ok.” 

Cecil stood a bit straighter and folded one arm over the other, careful of his coffee. “Janice?” he asked, peering over his glasses in a teacherly fashion. “Is there anything you want to tell me?” 

His niece just twisted and shouted over to her mother, “Mom! Uncle Cecil let me have a donut!” His sister’s head swiveled in place like an owl’s and Cecil saw his life flash before his eyes. Steve managed to intervene before she tore Cecil’s tendons out and Janice attempted to roll away. 

“Oh no you don’t!” Cecil scooped his niece from her chair and threw her over his shoulder. She squealed with laughter and slapped his back, crying, “Let me go, let me go!” He just laughed and lowered her on to his hip, grunting with the effort. 

“You’re getting heavy. Woo!” She giggled and held onto her uncle’s neck. Putting his best ‘bad cop’ expression on his face, Cecil grilled, “Ma’am, are you in cahoots with my boyfriend?” Janice stuck her tongue out and shook her head. “Are you lying?”

Janice smiled at him. “Just wait Uncle Cecil. It’ll be a nice surprise!” He opened his mouth to tell her lying was bad especially to a kind uncle like him when a sharp cry of “Cecil!” jerked him out of his playful argument. The radio host just winced at his sister’s sharp call. He sighed set Janice back into her chair, crouching down to eye level. 

“You’re mother is going to kill me and it’s your fault.” Cecil pouted dramatically. Janice beamed at him and patted his cheek in sympathy. 

Rolling back over to her parents, Janice cheered, “Happy New Year!” to him and left him with his thoughts on Carlos.  
_______________

Dinner at Josie’s was nice, if a little loud. The mashed potatoes only spit at him once and the pumpkin pie had been seared just right. Josie had had the TV going and the tall, glowing entities in her home had squabbled over watching ‘A Christmas Story’ or ‘Home Alone’. John Peters-you know, the farmer?-had broken out some moonshine and Cecil managed to choke down a glass of the brightly lit liquor before sticking with eggnog the rest of the night. At 10:18, according to Cecil’s watch, everybody started to countdown to the New Year. Of course, time not being real, made figuring out when the New Year began quite difficult. Still, despite Josie’s insistence that he stay a little longer, Cecil thanked Josie for inviting him and headed home at 11:09. Overall, a non-eventful, if loud, evening. 

The light smattering of snow crunched under his feet as he headed back to his and Carlos’ home. It was only a couple blocks, so the walk was a nice change so long as Cecil avoided those poorly disguised snow-traps. He rolled his eyes at the feeble attempts of the lizard people and skirted a shoddy trap. Fools. Still, he kept his guard up, just in case any of them tried to snag his ankles. They were nasty biters. 

His phone vibrated suddenly and Cecil hastily reached for it, recognizing the soft, chirping melody of his boyfriend’s ringtone. “Carlos!” he trilled, happy to hear from the scientist. 

Cecil heard the smile in Carlos’ voice as he greeted, “Hi Cecil! Happy New Year!”

Turning the corner near Denny’s, the radio host returned, “You too, my dear. How are you? How’s Doug and Alesha?” 

“They’re fine. Alesha is teaching me how to properly ride their dog without falling off. I’m not very good at it? But they’re a really good teacher, so I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it soon. And,” he chuckled a bit and Cecil thought he sounded very strange, like there was an echo. “I’m doing wonderful!” 

Cecil furrowed his brow and stopped walking at that. “You sound kind of funny, honey.”

“Well, why don’t you turn around and tell me why?”

The radio host whipped around and there was Carlos standing at the corner behind him. He waved from his position and Cecil nearly broke the screen of his phone, he hung up so fast. The scientist started walking towards Cecil and the radio host opted instead to run. As Cecil neared him Carlos realized the other wasn’t slowing down and immediately began to protest. “Cecil wait!”

But Cecil had already thrown his arms out, ready to hug Carlos with all his might-

-only to pass through him and slam into the sidewalk.  
__________

“I am sooo sorry! I tried to tell you I wasn’t actually here…” 

Cecil kept his head tilted back, pinching the bridge of his nose to stem the bleeding. From what he could tell, he didn’t break it, though that didn’t it stop it from hurting like hell. Carlos looked so cute though, all concerned about him. It made Cecil feel a lot better and he smiled at his scientist boyfriend. “It’d ok, Carlos! You didn’t doe!” Carlos just smiled sheepishly. 

After the embarrassing tumble, the two managed to make it back to the apartment without incident, Carlos apologizing the whole way and Cecil just clutching his nose and holding back tears. Now, they(or rather Cecil) sat on the couch, the radio playing softly in the kitchen.

Once the bleeding stopped, Cecil asked, “Did you talk to Janice about this?” Carlos looked down at their touching(?) hands and nodded. 

“I asked her to keep me to speed on the time on New Year’s.” Turning to Cecil, he explained, “When the New Year begins, we’re supposed to kiss, aren’t we? To celebrate? So… here I am!” Carlos spread his arms out, cheeks red and brown eyes earnest. Cecil’s heart ached with fondness for him and he desperately wished that he could touch him. 

Rolling his sleeve up, Cecil read the watch time and shook his head. “It’s still too early.” Carlos lowered his arms and let out a soft ‘humph’. The radio host adjusted the watch to go off a minute before the New Year actually began before settling into the couch cushions. “Maybe we could just talk? Or watch some TV?” 

Carlos just sighed. “That sounds nice.”

Cecil fiddled with the end of the throw blanket on the couch and cuddled up to Carlos’ incorporeal body as best he could. Even though he couldn’t feel Carlos, Cecil felt a warmth spread through him. Bashfully, he murmured, “I miss this.” 

A sad smile tugged at Carlos’ lips. “I know…” He turned to properly face Cecil and placed his hands on(and through) the other’s. “You’ve been so good about my work here, in the Desert, and…” He sighed and looked, cheeks pink. “You’re the best for it. I’m working on it.” 

Cecil was a quiet for a moment, trying to rub circles into a hand that was physically not there, before he spoke. “I miss you but I know how... important this is for you. It’s hard but… I don’t want to be selfish.” He leaned closer to Carlos. “Not when you seem so excited about everything that’s there.” 

The corners of Carlos’ eyes crinkled in affection. “Thank you, Cecil.”

And so, for the next 32 minutes, the two sat and talked, while the TV screen flickered images of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. They talked about things they had forgotten to tell the other (“I found some fossils in the Desert that indicate that that environment once held water! Maybe that’s why the lighthouse is there?”), memories of the past(“One year, Santa got trapped in a wormhole and ended up in Nightvale a whole day early! Kooky, huh?”), and of things to come(“Maybe we should put shelves in our bedroom? It’d give us more room…”). At 11:59, Cecil’s watch beeped urgently and they snuggled closer, ignoring the TV in favor of watching each other. Together, they counted down softly, leaning in as they neared 10 seconds. And when they finally hit 0, they closed their eyes and felt no soft, pressure of lips on lips, no toe curling sparks but rather felt the mimicry of kisses to come. They pulled away and did not feel alone or distant from one another for they knew that distance was just a number and love was a combination of pheramones, endorphins, the prefrontal cortex, and a little something that even they couldn’t understand but knew was there. And for a while after, they just watched the TV, relishing in the brief moment of domesticity. 

As the program ended, Carlos turned to ask Cecil what he wanted to watch only to find the radio host sleeping deeply. The scientist wished he could drape a blanket over his snoozing boyfriend but could only settle for kissing him as best he could, whispering softly, “We’ll be together again soon, I swear. I love you.” Without a sound, he faded out of this plan of existence, leaving Cecil, alone, in the light of the television.


End file.
